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I just read through this whole post and realized that this isn't done! Awesome post and I hope things keep going your way. Thanks for keeping this thread updated. It is a very interesting read from the perspective of a new home buyer(U.S) in the market. Hind sight being 20/20... What do you think you would have done differently at the house shopping phase knowing what you know now? Did you expect THIS much redecorating?
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May 17, 2018 16:52
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Jaded Burnout posted:I also need to follow up with the cladding company on some questions, and at some point I need to do the planning on exactly when everything needs to happen to get the rendering done AND visit Folkestone to check the colour of the render. It's gonna be tight to hit the planned date of early June and I'm mentally exhausted. Swing by the harbour when you're in Folkestone for a break. Its nice down there and the Harbour Inn is good for lunch.
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May 17, 2018 17:57
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Theoretical Cat posted:Hind sight being 20/20... What do you think you would have done differently at the house shopping phase knowing what you know now? Did you expect THIS much redecorating? If I literally knew everything I know now, I'd build a place instead, but that's only after having learned how all the building guts works. If I had a 10 second flash of the last 18 months but none of the actual knowledge, I'd have put all my dreams on hold, stayed right the gently caress where I was, and waited, then bought a better house that didn't need much work. Theoretical Cat posted:Did you expect THIS much redecorating? I remember on the walk around saying "nothing a bit of decorating won't fix". And to be fair it was true, there were no actual *problems* that couldn't be fixed relatively easily, but I'd live every day in that house seeing all the things that weren't how I wanted them. Oscar Romeo Romeo posted:Swing by the harbour when you're in Folkestone for a break. Its nice down there and the Harbour Inn is good for lunch. Sounds like a plan.
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May 17, 2018 22:03
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Guttering guy has clarified his high quote, apparently they don't like doing groundworks so he quoted me high on the labour to compensate. Note that the groundworks in this case were his idea. I'll go with someone else.
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May 17, 2018 22:15
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Jaded Burnout posted:Guttering guy has clarified his high quote, apparently they don't like doing groundworks so he quoted me high on the labour to compensate. Note that the groundworks in this case were his idea. What groundworks? The house as existed had gutters? put some more gutters on into the existing sewers doesn't sound that hard? I've just installed all new gutters all around my place where previously there were none. they look and (weird but I love it) sound awesome. Groundworks are pay fatman (in my instance be fatman) to drag a trench to drains and tie in, job done.
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May 18, 2018 01:10
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Most of the drainage is new, now, and we were talking about moving a couple of the new drain points a few inches to make the guttering easier. What I'll probably do is talk to the builder I'm getting to do the other bits, once he's done those (and unblocked the rendering) I'll ask him about doing the groundworks then I'll do the final guttering myself, the only bit I'm unsure on is what of the many plumbing approaches to joins are used for guttering (compression? push fit? solvent weld?) and how to properly mate a new hopper to a flat parapet roof.
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May 18, 2018 08:52
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What are the gutters? Zinc?
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May 18, 2018 23:57
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The gutters in the main house are PVC, but the roofs on the extensions (the flat parapet roofs) are fibreglass. Right now there's just a couple of gaps in the parapet for water runoff.
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May 19, 2018 00:04
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Oh. No idea then, glue I'd imagine. Some of my plastic stuff has rubber sealed jointing pieces but they're stupid expensive for what they are.
NotJustANumber99 fucked around with this message at 23:00 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 22:57
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OK so with a builder on the go to trim the brick feature off the front of the house and cast two cills for the back, the only thing that needs doing before the renderer gets here (other than buying the render) is weatherproofing the front entrance. It currently looks like this:     That whole covering has to come off for the render, and I don't particularly want rain getting into the wall cavity. I'm going to (eventually) be putting aluminium coping on the parapet walls of all the extensions, the application process for which looks like this:  So in order to both give the renderer something to work with, weatherproof the cavity, and advance towards that goal, I'll be adding the waterproof membrane and marine ply now, and lapping it over the back with flashing tape. The membrane, tape, pins etc I can buy wherever, but the ply is less easy because it comes in 2400x1200 boards which won't fit in my car. So I need to get it ordered in. It's also expensive as poo poo. So, out I went this afternoon to measure the parapets for all the extensions, thus:  Now I have to calculate the most efficient number of boards I can buy to get this done.
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May 20, 2018 17:17
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Looks like I can just about fit the whole lot in one board. Bit of a shame that the delivery is 2/3rds of the cost of the board. If I needed 2 it would become more efficient.
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May 20, 2018 17:30
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Board ordered, my supplier didn't have other supplies of decent quality so I'll pick them up in person elsewhere when the ply arrives. Cost: £87.00 Total so far: £146,043.94
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May 20, 2018 19:47
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Quite a few years ago now, but I carried a 2.4 by 1.2m sheet of MDF about 5 miles back home from b&q. It's about picking your battles. I'm bad at it.
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May 20, 2018 22:01
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I did the same with a bunch of 2x3s a few years ago. In the pouring rain.
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May 20, 2018 22:04
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I have a growing list of projects I can't do until I either buy a roof rack for the car or stump up ridiculous values for delivered plywood. I can get 12mm BB ply for £20 a sheet if I can collect it, or it's nearly £70 delivered.
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May 21, 2018 12:46
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cakesmith handyman posted:I have a growing list of projects I can't do until I either buy a roof rack for the car or stump up ridiculous values for delivered plywood. I can get 12mm BB ply for £20 a sheet if I can collect it, or it's nearly £70 delivered.  This was around £30 delivery (plus £6 for additional sheets). I found marine ply prices to be wildly varying in price but they almost always came out about the same price once delivery was included. Personally I'd be wary of doing it even if I had a roof rack, you gotta get some lift from those boards at speed.
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May 21, 2018 13:07
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cakesmith handyman posted:I have a growing list of projects I can't do until I either buy a roof rack for the car or stump up ridiculous values for delivered plywood. I can get 12mm BB ply for £20 a sheet if I can collect it, or it's nearly £70 delivered. Can’t you get the shop to cut it down for you? Wickes & B&Q used to do this I’m sure. Failing that, you can probably hire a van for half a day for less than that delivery charge.
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May 21, 2018 13:43
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My local B&Q has a hire-by-the-hour van on site for that exact purpose.
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May 21, 2018 15:54
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Completely unrelated, but I was reading your thread at home the other day and my son (6) saw your avatar and thought it was the funniest thing and had to call my daughter (3) over to laugh at the "cat using the computer".
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May 21, 2018 16:37
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Scaffolding is now booked in for June 1st. When I get my car back operational I need to go check out some examples of K-Rend vs Weber pral.m and order 2,500kg of whichever I prefer. I'm also talking to the company I bought the marine ply from because I also need about 100m of batten for the cladding but it slipped my mind, hopefully I can get it on the same delivery. I've done a few calcs and I think I'll be ok with 3kg of nails, so I'll buy 4 to be safe. I guess that also means it's time to order the 300m of cladding and a mitre saw. dreesemonkey posted:Completely unrelated, but I was reading your thread at home the other day and my son (6) saw your avatar and thought it was the funniest thing and had to call my daughter (3) over to laugh at the "cat using the computer". Nice!
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May 21, 2018 18:06
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I've just had a call from the sparky to make sure the plastering was finished since he was booked in 4th June to finish his stuff. It's not. Every trade I've spoken to while picking up the pieces has told me how difficult the previous builder was to work with, and particularly to get money out of. They've all washed their hands of him.
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May 21, 2018 18:53
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Jaded Burnout posted:Personally I'd be wary of doing it even if I had a roof rack, you gotta get some lift from those boards at speed. Local collection means nothing over 30mph, strap the boards together and to a couple of 2x4s above and below the boards, I think my local bloke is 3 miles away. wooger posted:Can’t you get the shop to cut it down for you? Wickes & B&Q used to do this I’m sure. Yes, if it's not an awkward non-straight cut. If I hired the van twice I'd have paid for the roof rack too.
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May 21, 2018 20:36
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Lol just lol of you've never looped rope through your car windows to hold stuff on the roof. To be fair my roof is very flat and I never tried it with anything heavier than pool floaties.
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May 21, 2018 23:27
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No I did that with the people carrier, 2 ratchet straps and 3 sheets of ply. E: rolled up dust sheets underneath
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May 21, 2018 23:35
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Only just checked back in recently - yay for updates, it looks so close to being done! We recently picked our builder on the basis of the pretty impressive tender package they submitted - the fully itemized quote was in a reasonable ballpark and their package included a couple of pages of references from past customers. We had some back and forth on excluding things once the quoted number came back to stay in budget and they were so just responsive and willing to accommodate. They really blew the competition out of the water and I have high hopes, but I'm wondering if that's because they're in the "let's win the work" phase and then it'll all go to pieces once the build is underway.Jaded Burnout posted:Every trade I've spoken to while picking up the pieces has told me how difficult the previous builder was to work with, and particularly to get money out of. They've all washed their hands of him. It's been a while since I read the thread so I did a quick skim to see if you'd gone into detail about how you selected the builder, but if you did I must have missed it. How did you pick this builder? I'm assuming he must have given you clean references to start and this other stuff is just coming out of the woodwork now. Also, how are you feeling about the builder now? When I asked previously, you seemed to still be giving him the benefit of doubt: Jaded Burnout posted:It wasn't too annoying because it was fairly easy to fix, should hold up over time, and is in an easily accessible spot.
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May 22, 2018 12:26
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I found him on checkatrade. I spoke to four builders before picking him, he was the only one who seemed to have a handle on the scale of the problem without being a company with lots of overhead that pads out the invoices. I still think he had his heart in the right place, the work he's done which was in his wheelhouse was done competently most of the time and with high quality materials even when he could have very reasonably gone with cheaper. But he's also someone who won't admit when he's out of his depth and is loving useless at communications. If I were to do it again I'd not look for a builder who can do it all, I'd find a general builder for the broad construction and get specialists in myself to handle e.g. the plumbing, plastering. I don't doubt that he's a good carpenter, which was his original job, and he's done well with the brickwork etc, but speaking to both replacement trades and the ones he brought in on the job I can see now that he's only middling at everything else. From what I can tell the main reason the other trades don't like him is the admin side, bad organisation and money troubles. I do hope your builder sees it through to the end. I'm sorry to say that you won't know until the end of the project when the money starts to run out. That's another reason why I'd want to gather together people myself; I don't want anyone tied in for the whole project, I want them to be replaceable and on day rates so if they begin to flake I can bring in someone else. Most of the recent issues from my side have been from the fact that so much work was tied under a single invoice that I'd paid out last year, so it took a lot of fight and a lot of cost on my side to cut that tie.
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May 22, 2018 12:52
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I should clarify, this is a very common pattern with big projects: - Single big invoice with a large deposit for materials and weekly payments towards the total - Builder underestimates the time it'll take or the project extends for unexpected reasons - Therefore the weekly payments end before the project is finished - Builder no longer has cash flow to cover his staff and has to take on other jobs - Eventually all his staff are on the other jobs and you're lucky if you can get someone in a couple of days a month Make sure you have a VERY significant completion payment, i.e. an amount of the total which is not paid on a schedule but held over until the final stone is laid. That is your only leverage to get them to come back and finish the job once the weeklies end, and your only recourse (short of a lawsuit) to cover payments to a replacement builder if you need to cut ties. In my case it was 5%, if I did it the same now I'd make it 20% and pay it out as major milestones were completed.
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May 22, 2018 13:01
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Oh, and I wouldn’t go with a small company for a big project again because their warranty is only as good as the solvency of the company. If he folds (which is looking very possible) then it’s worthless.
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May 22, 2018 13:05
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Great job on the build, I really like how thoughtful you've been with the layout and it will be super relaxing to live in as a result. Looking at this section gave me a terrible flashback to my last home which was the top two floors of a 4-storey Victorian house in north London. The conversion didn't include anything like the wrap-over membrane so if there was super heavy rainfall, or the outlet got blocked, all the water was diverted into the living room. The freeholder was not interested in doing repairs or maintenance (gently caress freehold/leasehold I am never buying another flat in the UK).
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May 22, 2018 13:10
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Jaded Burnout posted:I should clarify, this is a very common pattern with big projects: This reminded me of various snippets collected over the years from friends and co workers: Being charged for a topping out ceremony without prior agreement that only the builders could possibly have been at. Laying the"final stone" and harassing (with lawyers) for the final payment before the work was 75% done because the "final stone" was symbolic and laid whenever. Charged £500 for a special final stone that looked exactly like the 99 billion other bricks on site. Receiving an invoice for the time taken to quote when said quote was rejected. And a personal favourite: after reluctantly agreeing the builders could leave an old but not embarrassing caravan on site as a restroom, finding three of them living in it.
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May 22, 2018 13:40
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knox_harrington posted:Looking at this section gave me a terrible flashback to my last home which was the top two floors of a 4-storey Victorian house in north London. The conversion didn't include anything like the wrap-over membrane so if there was super heavy rainfall, or the outlet got blocked, all the water was diverted into the living room. The freeholder was not interested in doing repairs or maintenance (gently caress freehold/leasehold I am never buying another flat in the UK). D: Yeah I made that a goal very early on. If I can't knock it down I ain't buying it (stunning listed buildings as a maybe exception). cakesmith handyman posted:This reminded me of various snippets collected over the years from friends and co workers: Oh no
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May 22, 2018 14:28
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Nah, sounds like you're past most of those stages.
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May 22, 2018 18:40
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OK I've just spent 3 hours and £250 in my local hardware emporium picking up gear and mats for the coping and upcoming cladding. Stuff like clamps and extra sawhorses to help me cut the marine ply, rolls of flashing tape and waterproof membrane, end grain treatment, sealants, adhesives, all sorts. Came to around £202.87 excluding the stuff I was buying specifically to make a new home for my rats. Total so far £146,246.81 Still need to buy a seam roller and a heat gun.
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May 23, 2018 14:55
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I read that as steam roller at first and I think I prefer that.
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May 23, 2018 15:25
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drgitlin posted:I read that as steam roller at first and I think I prefer that. How else would he deal with the previous contractor?
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May 23, 2018 16:48
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xsf421 posted:How else would he deal with the previous contractor? By paying him money for an unfinished job.
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May 23, 2018 18:49
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Alright, so today was warm and dry and tomorrow was going to rain, so as much as I wanted to sit on my rear end and watch TV I got the front extension roof done instead. Here's what it's been for some time:  With that gone we can see the situation as left by the roofers  Quick trim (gloves, eye pro, respirator, it is fibreglass after all)    Then I did a really untidy job waterproofing it.   I realised while I was doing it that I didn't have any solvents to clean up the bitumen or sealant, I'll perhaps pop back up and clear up the parts that'll be "visible" later. Most of it will be covered by either the render or the aluminium coping that's going on later. Then I had a nice warm bath. Things for next time: solvent, and tough, long sleeves. Got some tar on me, could've wound up with glass fibres if I wasn't careful, and I burned myself on the heat gun. In any case it's now ready for render Monday next, and I got my car back and did a tour of a few recently finished houses to pick out the render brand and colour. Not going for Weber pral.m in the end since I don't like their off-white, so K Rend "white" it is.
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May 25, 2018 19:27
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Cladding ordered. £1,938.86 delivered. Ouch. Total so far, £148,214.75
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May 26, 2018 12:37
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~100m of 50x38mm batten ordered. Cost £110.59 delivered. Total so far, £148,325.34. More interestingly, my builder's other main customer (the one he buggered off to all the time) tracked me down and knocked on my door. We spent about an our talking about lack of communication, dishonesty, and money issues. It seems like I got out just in time, this other guy is in the same boat except his house is only half built.
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May 26, 2018 15:10
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Don't know if this has been asked, but what is "render"? I am an American Goon and only have assumptions at this point. Over here a "render" or a rendering is a drawing, or a model of some sort. fake edit; Awesome thread BTW. Been following it from the beginning.
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May 26, 2018 20:09
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